We should all learn German, especially the boys…

What is it with boys and learning languages? Why is it so hard? And why don’t they commit? Honestly, just basic German can be so useful, and yet the Brit boys forget their der, die, das and eins, zwei, drei with catastrophic consequences….

That’s the way to do it…

You need to picture the scene. Nine Brit boys on a long weekend skiing in Val Gardena – may be Italy, but German is the lingua franca, c’est la vie… The aim is as many miles on the piste for as few Euros as poss, so home cooking is the order of the day.

the boys favoured orange this year

On the first shopping trip many, many, bottles of beer are bought for later consumption. Only for a fatal word on the label to be ignored: alkoholfrei… I mean I ask you, basic German or what!?! And spaghetti carbonara is a good dish for many hungry mouths, but the final pasta becomes slightly stodgy after overlong boiling and a realisation that it is senza glutine… (Italian, I know…)

the most pointless products in the world

Thank heavens for Wein, Weib und Gesang…

Alohol free beer means speed limits can be ignored on the slope!

But maybe the finest scene is reserved for the Bäckerei, where 18 rolls need to be bought for the following day’s packed lunch on the slopes. The boys can’t count to 18 in German – eins to zehn is all they can manage, so they asked the young lady behind the counter for neun rolls which she duly picks out, puts in a bag and hands over. At which point the boys add: “und neun…”, so she, perplexed, turns around and has to pick out another 9 rolls and put them in a second bag… She must have thought they were Idioten….

Spectacular views!

Looks like someone had a serious tumble!

I wonder if the girls’ trip is anything like this…? Let’s face it, unwahrscheinlich…